Indian Lake readies Great Adirondack Moose Festival

An adult male moose shown in its natural habitat in this photo provided by the Great Adirondack Moose Festival, scheduled for Sept. 23-24 in Indian Lake. The Indian Lake area is home to some of the 500 to 800 moose living in New York State.

INDIAN LAKE | On a snowy Sunday afternoon in 2008, Brenda Valentine’s husband, Jack, dragged her to a Cabin Fever Sunday Series presentation at the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake at the Adirondack Experience.

A representative of the state Department of Environmental Conservation was speaking on a topic in which she had no real interest —

Moose.

But she warmed to the topic, and that changed the Baltimore native’s perspective on the creature entirely.

“I think they are beautiful,” Valentine said.

A member of the Indian Lakes Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Valentine was chamber vice-president at the time. She said she was fascinated by the people who came out to attend a Cabin Fever Sunday lecture on the moose.

“I started asking people, ‘Are you from the area?’ and they said, “No.’” Valentine said. “This went on for quite a while.”

The auditorium, she said, was packed with people from Troy, Syracuse, Albany and other places to attend a lecture about the moose.

“A light went off in my head,” Valentine said, adding this was her inspiration for a moose festival in Indian Lake.

An investigation revealed there were no moose festivals in New York. The closest thing to it were moose tours in Vermont and New Hampshire that draw visitors from all over the world.

In fact, Valentine found few other moose festivals in North America, locating one in Maine, one in Canada and another in Talkeetna, Alaska. She came home from the Cabin Fever lecture and starting working to form a committee to create the Great Adirondack Moose Festival.

The festival kicked off in 2010 and, according to Valentine, has grown every year.

This year’s installment is set for Sept. 23 and 24 in Indian Lake.

The festival includes a host of family-friendly activities, including the Mooseterpiece Games at Byron Park and the Moose Calling Contest, which Valentine said packs the Indian Lake Theater.

Indian Lake, she said, seems transformed as hundreds of people are seen walking down the street, a number of them in moose hats or moose T-shirts.

Each year, a speaker from DEC offers an update on the status of moose research in the Empire State.

The DEC estimates there are between 500 and 800 moose living in New York, and the numbers are rising. A male moose can grow to 6.5 feet tall from hooves to shoulder, not including the head. An adult male will grow from 800 to 1,500 pounds, yet can still run 35 miles per hour, and they are excellent swimmers. Although they might appear gentle from a distance, an adult moose can kill a wolf or bear.

“You don’t take a selfie with a moose,” Valentine said. “They are not a house pet.”

Valentine said Warren County asked Indian Lake to track where people were coming from to attend the festival, and she said people have been coming from all over the world to attend the Indian Lake Moose Festival, which this year will be held Sept. 23-24.